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Top 40 battle it out in Portage

Central Plains Caps forward Megan Ferg was the only player from the region to crack the U-18 top 40 camps held in Portage la Prairie this weekend. The U-16 camps wrapped up Sunday, the U-18 camps finish Tuesday. (Aaron Wilgosh/The Graphic)

Over a hundred players were put through the ringer this weekend at the Hockey Manitoba Program of Excellence camps held at Stride Place in Portage la Prairie and the Central Plains Capitals had six female players involved.

“We had five out Central Plains Capitals players at the U16 camp including two local Portage girls,” says U-16 head coach, John Ferg, who is also the assistant coach with the Midget female Caps. “We’re really pleased with the competitiveness of the camp. The top 40 players in the province in the female game continue to improve year after year and it makes things tough on our coaches.”

Hockey Manitoba’s U16 boys and girls teams were both on the ice from Friday to Sunday at Stride Place where they took part in general practices and scrimmages to showcase the talent. Portage la Prairie hopefuls Oceane Asham and Ava Matthews-McCulley, and fellow Central Plains Capitals players Lainie Muir (Glenella), Brooke Legault (St. Francios Xavier) and Melayna Drozd (Fannystelle), all attended this weekend’s U-16 camp while Megan Ferg was the only Central Plains player to make it to the U-18 top 40 camp.

The U-18 camp wraps up Tuesday night. The coaching staff will now reduce the team rosters to the top 27 players, who will again battle it out in a camp at the Bell-MTS Iceplex in Winnipeg in July.